


The Trail We Blaze

by JetGirl1832, tomatopudding



Series: The Hamilton Family Album [4]
Category: Hamilton - Miranda
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Camping, Family Fluff, Gen, in the back yard
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-08-10
Updated: 2018-08-10
Packaged: 2019-06-25 22:03:33
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,237
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15649803
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/JetGirl1832/pseuds/JetGirl1832, https://archiveofourown.org/users/tomatopudding/pseuds/tomatopudding
Summary: Philip wants to take his girls camping. Catherine says they're too young to go into the wilderness. Philip comes up with a different plan. Cuteness ensues.





	The Trail We Blaze

“Can I open my eyes now?” Angelica whined, tugging on the sleeve she was holding.    
  
“Soon,” Philip Schuyler assured his eight-year-old daughter.    
  
“How soon, Papa?” Eliza piped up.    
  
She was trailing behind Angelica, the two girls holding hands so that they could actually walk while covering their eyes. Philip was carrying Peggy, whose eyes were squeezed shut as well.    
  
“I promise, you’ll love this surprise,” Philip added.

 

Eliza let out a deep sigh, “How much further?”

 

“Almost there,” Philip assured, carefully leading the girls out into the back porch.    
  
It had taken a little bit of time to plan this, to make sure that he would have off of work the next day and to get everything in order. Philip and Catherine had always loved camping and they really wanted to take their girls camping too. Catherine had insisted that Peggy was still too young at the age of six to go real camping. That’s what had spurred Philip on to prepare this surprise. Their family home was set on a sprawling open lot, with more than enough space to set up a makeshift campsite.

 

“Open!” Philip told them.    
  
The girls obeyed.    
  
“Woah,” gasped Angelica.   
  
“That tent is so big!” Eliza gasped.    
  
The two of them shot down the porch stairs and out into the yard, chattering excitedly as they examined the large canvas tent and fire pit Philip had set up. There were large blankets set around the fire pit and several sticks that would make the perfect skewers for roasting hot dogs and marshmallows over the flame. Inside the tent he’d put a big pile of pillows and blankets for the girls as well as an air mattress for himself.    
  
“You ready to go camping, Pegs?” Philip asked the youngest, who was still in his arms.    
  
“I don’t like the dark,” she told him.    
  
“I know, baby, we’ll keep he porch light on and you can snuggle with your sisters,” Philip told her, “I bet that would help make the dark not so scary, right?”   
  
Peggy nodded, but still made no move to be released from Philip’s arms. 

 

“Can we have s’mores?” Eliza begged.   
  
“After dinner,” Philip chuckled.

  
“When’s dinner?” Eliza asked eagerly.    
  
Philip brought Peggy to where her sisters were waiting and put her down.    
  
“First I need to get a fire started,” he told the girls, “You can watch, but don’t come too close. Fire is dangerous.”

 

Philip then set to work on building the fire, tasking the girls with crumpling up sheets of newspaper for kindling. Before too long, he had a good fire going and he added a couple more logs to keep it fueled.

 

“You three ready to cook up some hot dogs?” Philip asked.

 

The three girls cheered in unison.    
  
“Alright,” said Philip, “you see those long, thin sticks over there? Why don’t you each go pick one that you like and we’ll get it ready to cook.”

 

They all went to carefully select a skewer for their hot dogs. Philip carefully stripped the bark from one end of each of their sticks and sharpened it very slightly for easier skewering. 

 

“There you go,” he passed Peggy hers, “now be careful.”   
  
Peggy’s brow furrowed in concentration as she held her hotdog over the fire. Although, “over” wasn’t exactly the right term, it was more like near the fire, so Philip felt comfortable in getting the other two girls situated. Then he returned to Peggy and pulled her into his lap so he could help her reposition her hotdog.    
  


“Now it’ll cook a little faster,” he informed her.   
  


Peggy nodded in understanding and leaned back against Philip’s chest.    
  
“How are you two doing?” He looked towards Angelica and Eliza.   
  


“I think mine is ready to turn,” Angelica said, “I don’t want it to burn.”   
  
“I’ve just been twisting mine the whole time,” Eliza piped up.    
  
Philip couldn’t help but laugh a little at their little exchange. “Very good, both of you.”

 

“Papa, what about your hotdog?” Peggy asked with concern, “You’re gonna be hungry.”

 

“Don’t worry Pegs, I can cook my own after yours is ready.

 

Peggy seemed satisfied with that response and settled back against him. Philip listened to his three girls chatter to each other as they cooked their hotdogs to perfection. Soon the four of them had settled into their dinner of hot dogs and baked beans. And after that came, of course, marshmallows. This is what the girls had been looking forward to most of all. Peggy even climbed off of Philip’s lap to join her sisters in their quest to find the perfect toasting time. Several marshmallows were lost in the process when the girls considered them too burnt. Philip happily accepted those. Soon all three had chocolate on their faces and their hands were coated in sticky marshmallow.

 

“Looks like we’re going to have to make a trip inside before we go to bed,” Philip admonished gently.

 

The girls let out some soft whines.   
  
“Well I don’t think any of you want marshmallow goop in your hair,” Philip smiled.

 

That got them going and the three girls started racing inside to wash up and get changed for bed. While they were inside, Philip set about getting things ready, cleaning up scraps from their dinner, and feeding another couple logs into the fire to keep it burning. It may have been summer, but the nights still sometimes carried a chill.

 

“Does anyone know what else is fun to do at campfires?” Philip asked once the girls were back outside by the fire. 

 

“Stories!” Eliza jumped up.

 

“Scary stories,” Angelica clarified.    
  
“I don’t want to hear a scary story,” pouted Peggy.

 

“They don’t have to be scary,” Eliza informed her younger sister.

 

“But they could be,” Angelica put in, grinning.    
  
“Noooo,” Peggy half wailed.    
  
“Okay,” Philip cut in before things could escalate, “that’s enough. We’ll have a nice non-scary story, please.”   
  
“Can we tell a scary one after Peggy goes to bed?” asked Angelica.    
  
Philip sighed, “I suppose so.”   
  
Peggy seemed pleased with this compromise.   
  
“I’ll tell a story,” Eliza offered, “It’s about a brave lady knight who has to save a prince from a castle!”   
  
“Can she be a sorceress?” Angelica asked, “Maybe she’s the queen’s trusted advisor and the queen sends her on the quest to save the prince because she wants to marry him. But the prince falls in love with the sorceress instead!”   
  
“Don’t give away the ending,” Peggy grumbled, “I want to hear the whole story.”

 

“Alright she’s a sorceress!” Eliza proclaimed.

 

Philip sat back and listened to his girls tell their story together. Angelica would outline events and Eliza did a wonderful job filling in the details. Even Peggy contributed a little bit. Philip’s personal favorite of hers were the centaurs who could only communicate through song. Eliza then gamely proceeded to make up a tune every time one of them spoke. But soon the story started losing steam.

 

The first was beginning to burn out and all three girls had dropping eyelids.    
  
“What don’t we go finish the story in the tent?” Philip suggested, picking up Peggy who was already halfway to sleep.    
  
He settled the three girls in their nest of blankets. By the time he returned from quenching the fire completely, all three were already sound asleep in a tangled pile of limbs.

 

Tidying their blankets a little before retreating his air mattress Philip whispered, “Goodnight girls.”

  
  



End file.
